"I said that's theoretically possible. In reality, even if you managed to conjure food, it would only be an illusion created by your cursed energy.
It wouldn't fill you up, might not even taste good, and most importantly—you don't have any cursed energy in the first place."
"Ugh, seriously?"
Paimon looked incredibly disappointed.
Lumine asked, "Is this domain strong?"
"Hard to say. Strictly speaking, this domain is incomplete—more like a prototype. It probably doesn't have any offensive capabilities."
"Traveler, do you think you can defeat this special-grade cursed spirit?"
Zephyr replied honestly, "No idea. Nobody can say for sure before the fight. But even if I can't beat it, I can always use teleportation to escape."
"Mm."
"Of course, if things really go south, I'll just throw Paimon to the enemy as food. Maybe it'll let me go."
"Paimon is NOT food! And if it comes to that, you're obviously bigger than Paimon! It should be eating you!"
Zephyr glanced behind him—the door had indeed vanished.
Meanwhile, Paimon was still busy being mad, completely unaware that the exit was gone.
"Paimon, let's go."
"Ah—wait for Paimon!"
They continued forward, encountering no real danger.
"Looks like this cursed spirit wants to play games with us. Alright then, let's play."
As they walked, they entered a spacious open area.
In the corner of the room lay several rotting corpses.
"D-d-dead… d-dead bodies…"
Paimon's voice trembled uncontrollably.
Zephyr sighed. "Looks like we got here too late."
"Th-this is too scary—"
Before she could finish, Paimon suddenly sank into the ground.
"Paimon!"
"Ahh! Help!!"
Zephyr reached out, but got dragged down with her in the panic.
They both sank into the depths below.
…
"Paimon!"
"Wuwuwu Paimon is sorry, Paimon didn't mean to!"
Whether others believed it or not, Zephyr did believe her.
"Wh-where are we? It's so dark..."
"There's a strange aura... it's getting closer!" Lumine said, on alert.
"So it's here..."
When facing a cursed spirit, don't panic. First, open the map.
Teleportation is still available. Okay, good.
Strange, pale masks began to appear out of the darkness—some were smiling, some crying, some expressionless.
But no matter the expression, each mask gave off an indescribably eerie feeling.
Level 8, Level 10, Level 9...
"Clearing mobs before the boss fight, huh? Fine by me—perfect for grinding XP."
Basic attack. Basic attack. Charged attack.
Lumine leapt up high, using one of the masks as a stepping stone, and launched a plunging strike.
But overall, her normal attacks didn't deal much damage.
That's the annoying thing about Genshin—some characters have insanely high skill or charged attack damage, but their basic attacks feel like scratching someone with a spoon.
"If only I had Sucrose, Bennett, Mona, or Master Diluc—I'd be nuking everything with vaporize melt combos!"
But he couldn't help it.
The only character he had right now was Anemo Lumine.
Whatever, forget the scratching—Wind Blade!
"Paimon!"
"Got it!"
Paimon tossed something toward the whirlwind created by Wind Blade.
With a loud boom, the Anemo tornado instantly turned into a fiery inferno, devouring the creepy monsters in a blaze of destruction.
Paimon gasped, "That thing called a lighter is amazing!"
Just when Zephyr thought they'd finished off all the cursed spirits, suddenly—dozens more masks emerged from the shadows again.
With those same twisted smiles, they seemed utterly indifferent to the death of their companions.
"Well, guess we'll treat this as level grinding.
But I better not waste my ult—need to save that for the boss."
No ult meant he could go wild with his elemental skill.
Lumine's skill formed a mini Rasengan-like vortex in her hand.
At C0, it wasn't too impressive—just dealt some straightforward damage.
But thanks to a reward from an earlier quest, he'd unlocked her first constellation.
At C1, Wind Blade could now slowly pull in enemies.
That made a big difference.
"Universal Pull."
Gravitational force surged—and in just an instant, all the masks vanished.
"Nice job, Traveler!" Paimon cheered.
"So is it time for the boss now?"
"Let's see… no, looks like there's another wave of mobs first."
Mushroom Cursed Spirit, Level 13.
Mushroom Cursed Spirit, Level 12.
Mushroom Cursed Spirit, Level 11.
Giant mushrooms began appearing one after another—each one at least the size of an elephant, with huge, gaping maws dripping with blood.
And it wasn't just an expression—they really had bloody mouths.
They looked like they could chomp down a whole hippo in one bite without issue.
Paimon shrieked and immediately dove behind Zephyr.
"Go, Traveler! Beat them up!"
"Their levels are a bit higher than those mask monsters from before, but there are fewer of them."
"Universal Pull!"
However, this time the all-powerful Rasengan-style move didn't quite work—or rather, it wasn't completely ineffective.
The pull effect clearly had a much weaker impact on these massive mushrooms.
One of them, the particularly "clever-looking" big mushroom, even grabbed onto a railing with both hands, refusing to budge an inch under the suction of the Wind Blade.
"Sigh... well, it's not the real Universal Pull or Almighty Push from Naruto, after all. Still lacking a bit."
Maybe at a higher level Wind Blade would work better, but right now it was only Level 1—definitely not strong enough.
Since the skill couldn't pull them in, he switched to normal attacks.
Given how large the mushrooms were, dodging wasn't even an option for them.
Basic attack. Basic attack. Charged attack.
"Yup, can't launch it—makes sense."
Same thing happened when he tried to knock up larger hilichurls. No lift.
"Rasengan!"
Paimon blinked. "Eh? Didn't you just say your skill doesn't work on Big-Smartiecough cough, I mean, the big mushrooms?"
"Who said it doesn't work? I said the pull effect doesn't work on them.
But the Anemo damage still lands just fine."
Just like now: Big-Smartie, due to its massive size, took the full brunt of the attack—direct hit, and down it went.
Paimon looked disappointed.
"Man, what a waste. Paimon really wonder what a mushroom that big would taste like."
"…Seriously? You were terrified just a moment ago, and now you're thinking of eating it? It's a cursed spirit!"
"Cough cough, of course Paimon know it's a cursed spirit—Paimon was just joking."
"…That drool of yours doesn't make it seem like a joke."
"Cough cough..."
Now that one had been taken down, the rest of the big mushrooms didn't stand a chance either.
Lumine made quick work of them all.
"Half a level of XP from that—not bad."
The cursed spirits in this world really were XP-rich.
If it were hilichurls instead, you'd probably have to farm hundreds just to get a single level-up.
But here? Just a few dozen and boom—half a level.
Nice.
"Ugh, this is getting boring. When's the boss showing up?
Also, this place is so dark—even if it did appear, we probably wouldn't see it…"
Just as she was complaining, Zephyr suddenly stiffened.
The BGM changed.
"Paimon, be careful. The boss is here."
Paimon turned her head in confusion—and came face to face with a grinning, grotesque monster lurking in the darkness.
"AAAAAHHH!!! A GHOST!!!"
Terrified, Paimon leapt into the Traveler's backpack at a speed faster than anyone had seen from her since arriving in this world.
Trembling. Trembling.
//END
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